WellesleyWeston Magazine

SUMMER 2014

Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.

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principle for uncovering and displaying the house and family's history,
a social document that continues to inform our understanding of local
people and events.
Following Ralph Jones's death shortly thereafter, a committee headed
by Gambrill established the Golden Ball Tavern Trust, a nonprofit, edu-
cational organization to purchase the house and property. Today the
Trust continues to operate the museum, with volunteer board members
actively involved in preservation, property maintenance, education, and
outreach, under the leadership of museum director Joan Bines.
Boston Post Road has long been a busy thoroughfare, from its
inception in the 1670s as a mail route between New York City and
Boston, and today, for commuters circumventing the Route 20 Bypass
to travel between Wayland and Waltham and Interstate 95. The
antique dwelling with muted green-gold clapboards is notable for its
simplicity: no fancy landscaping or updated windows. A small sign, "At
the sign of the Golden Ball," discreetly announces its presence and its
placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
"The saga of the Jones family is complex and fascinating," says
Board of Trustees president Peter Lord. "We want more than ever to
get the story out." Weston 300, the town's tri-centennial celebration in
2013, brought new people to the tavern to take tours and begin docent
training, and Lord sees the museum poised to involve more people in
its mission.
Many in the community know the Golden Ball Tavern for the
annual Outdoor Antiques Show and Sale, held on the lawn on the last
Saturday in September. In its 47th year, the Antiques Show is the
museum's principal fundraiser. "We're lucky to be independently
owned and managed," says Tare Newbury, who with his wife Sue
Newbury chaired the Antiques Show for many years. "We're fortunate
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Weston's Golden Ball Tavern has many stories to tell, some through the physical attributes of the house and oth-
ers in the language that survives in documents, letters, and publications. As museum director, Joan Bines has
been immersed in the words and syntax of American history for more than 30 years. A word lover and photogra-
pher, Bines has gathered more than one hundred examples in Words They Lived By: Colonial New England
Speech, Then and Now to tell an amazing and entertaining story about our New England heritage.
Many words and phrases in use today have origins in colonial speech. Most we use without knowing their
derivation. In Words They Lived By, topics range from men and women and their work, to home, politics, and mil-
itary terms. What's the meaning of "macaroni" in the colonial ditty Yankee Doodle? What were "tenterhooks" then
and what's the meaning now? Terms like "backlog," "easy chair," "john," "red tape," and "powder room" often
have surprising antecedents.
Have you used the phrase "at loggerheads" but aren't sure what it really means? Come to the Golden Ball
Tavern to see the museum's loggerhead excavated from a dirt floor and learn why the iron bar was also known
as a "flip dog." In Words They Lived By words tell stories and history comes alive.
Words They Lived By is available for purchase at www.goldenballtavern.org.
Words They
Lived By
Colonial New England Speech, Then and Now
B Y J O A N P. B I N E S
S
D I R E C T O R O F T H E G O L D E N B A L L TAV E R N M U S E U M
072-085_WWMb14_golden ball tavern_v2_WellesleyWeston Magazine 4/24/14 3:06 PM Page 74